I almost laughed, when a siting governor bluffed big time; in fact, I am beginning to think whether Zamfara is still in the 16th century or quarter of the 17th century. If Zamfara State is not to be in any of the aforementioned centuries, then a governor down there is primitive in thinking. At a time when experts were blaming his administration for the outbreak of meningitis in the state, he searched for an escape route by attributing the outbreak to punishment from God.Governor Yaris assertion is best understood in Comtean argument that the evolution of the human mind had taken place along with the evolution of the individual mind. In other words, he holds that just as each individual develops from the stage of a devout believer in childhood, to a critical metaphysician (one who questions the abstract notions of existence) in adolescence, to a natural philosopher in adulthood, so also the human beings and their system of thought have evolved in three major stages.Many Nigerians were Yari in thinking, and for me, as a student of sociology; whoever has the attitude of attributing man-made troubles to Almighty, is not only supposed to be sent back to 16th or 17th centuries, but to be challenged for attributing all wrongs to God, while right to intelligentsia.To clarify further, we should understand that habitus is both durable and transposable, that is, transferable from one field to another. However, it is possible for people to have an inappropriate habitus, to suffer from hysteresis. A good example is someone who is uprooted from an agrarian existence (Yari) in a contemporary capitalistoriented society and put to serve as the executive governor of a state. Why wont he attribute the cause of meningitis to God'For quite a long time in Zamfara, masses were victims of poor governance, always in the hands of people who use religion as an instrument of goal attainment. So, as a result, if care is not taken, in the nearest future, another primitive thinking fellow would use religion to manipulate his way into the executive office of the state.In the law of Three Stages, Auguste Comte (The Founding father of Sociology) categorised them so as to cope with the evolution of human thought. They are; the Theological, the Metaphysical; and the Positive stages.In the theological stage, the mind explains phenomena by ascribing them to beings or forces comparable to human beings. In this stage, a human being attempts to discover the first and the final causes (the origin and purpose) of all effects. Thus, human mind at this level supposes that all phenomena are produced by the immediate action of supernatural beings. For example, some people believed that diseases like Small Pox, Meningitis type C, and Cholera were the expressions of Gods anger; anger as a result of fornication or diversion of 500 million Paris Club refund, as the case may be.In the metaphysical stage, the mind explains phenomenon by invoking abstract entities like nature. These abstract entities are personified abstractions. Human beings pursue meaning and explanation of the world in term of essences, ideals, forms, i.e. in short, in a conception of some ultimate reality, such as God.Finally, in the positive stage human beings cease to look for original sources or final causes because these can be neither checked against facts nor utilised to serve our needs. Human mind at this stage applies itself to the study of their laws, i.e. their invariable relations of succession and resemblance. Human beings seek to establish laws which link facts and which govern social life.Comte maintained that each stage of the development of human thoughts necessarily grew out of the preceding one. Only when the previous stage exhausts itself does the new stage develop. He also correlated the three stages of human thought with the development of social organisation, types of social order, the types of social units and material conditions found in society. He believed that social life evolved in the same way the successive changes in human thought took place.Nigeria is expected to have passed through the first phase since before October 1, 1960, we shouldnt as well be in the second stage, by now. The driving forces governing the affairs of individuals in contemporary times are reasoning, objectivity and verifiable empirical evidences as against logic and philosophical manipulations. One may not argue about a phenomenon that is fully understood by science, if he does so by presenting hunches as facts, then the end result must be a shame. Idris writes from Kaduna, he can be reached at idrizman@yahoo.com
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